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Monday, February 22, 2010

Hey readers! We're looking for ideas on how to get more students to be involved with Splash. What are some ways that you can think of to let students know about Splash? A lot of people haven't heard of Splash and we're trying to get the word out.

I don't think a newspaper would work too well, as most teens don't actively read newspapers, let alone ads, even if it is a school newspaper. I suppose it would vary by school though. Might cost some good money for ads too.

I think word of mouth is the best way to do something like this, as I think when students hear Splash, they think it'll be lame since it's "school on the weekend", and just more work, but if they hear classmates or other similar age students saying it's actually really fun and enjoyable, they'll be more interested.

Telling school counselors or teachers, putting posters up at popular teen hangout areas, libraries (that permit; I've had difficulty as they have non-profit only rules), and other public locations would be my suggestions.

I heard some teachers give their students extra credit for going to Splash (some make them take specific classes, some just say go to Splash), so I don't know how attractive of an option that is, but it's there....

Post the upcoming splash to your Facebook events on the Stanford ESP Page. That way it shows up on the feed of students who are attending. This is not an official registration but just sort of RSVP that shows up on the news feed as if to say "look at what I'm doing." It will get their friends interested.

You might want to try Berkeley Public Media (http://www.betv.org/) and post a message there. No, that's silly.Maybe... MAYBE! MAYBE if you do a SCHOOL TOUR. Get some overworked students together or.. you know.. some people and say "GO TO HIGH SCHOOLS! TALK TO PEOPLE!" and then talk to principals of various Bay Area schools to pass on the information in, say, the daily bulletin. (Lots of schools have bulletins, don't they?) Or maybe you could step into classrooms and do a tiny demo of the AWESOMENESS that is Splash! I think that the way to get people interested and to participate is to get them involved. So I suggest that perhaps a teacher of one of the most hands-on classes for this weekend goes in to a few classes.If the above came too obviously from the fingers of a fourteen-year-old (or, you know, if you've done it already), I suppose it'd be wisest to get some good regular yuppies involved. Yuppies know how to weasel into things, don't they? They know publicity! Do we love them? Almost!

And appeal more to those all-to-prevalent non-academic types. You know, the ones who go to Splash to.. I dunno.. Eat pizza. Or.. talk about social interaction! No.. No, that's for nerds. I don't know. I guess I mean just advertise like you write basic five-paragraph essays. For idiots. Like two different campaigns. One for the crazy, self-motivated academics (hello!) and one for the other people.